Winter Round-Up: 2024 Releases (So Far...)
New Am artists kept winter away with songs that kept us alive...in the electric snow dream, perhaps? Check them out below.
Natalie Joachim - Ki Moun Ou Ye (Album)
Within the first week of 2024, Grammy-nominated artist and professor Natalie Joachim was making waves with “Ki Moun Ou Ye,” her unapologetically magnetic album title track, warming up the hearts of many listeners with “gorgeous live singing, [and]…fiery lines from [her] flute.” - New York Times The Haitian-American composer used her family’s ancestral land and language (Creole) as the foundation for introspective reflection.
“For me, it led to, ‘Who am I actually?’ Not just on a performative level but also as a Black person in spaces where I constantly have to code-switch…It’s a deep question. It isn’t casual.” - Natalie Joachim
Another staff favorite, “Renmen m plis,” takes us back to a moment - a wholesome memory - of how love can make you feel at home.
Ki Moun Ou Ye was released on February 16th, 2024, in a partnership between New Amsterdam Records and Nonesuch Records, followed by an outstanding lineup of incredible performances by Joachim at the MoMA, Carnegie Hall, and more.
William Brittelle - Alive In The Electric Snow Dream (Album)
In a season of cold winds, harsh landscapes, and overall dullness, William Brittelle took a chance to disrupt the norm by collaborating with Metropolis Ensemble to release Alive In The Electric Snow Dream. Here you’ll find Dido’s Lament (Revisited), which, according to the liner notes, serves as “a feminist retelling of the Dido and Aeneas myth anchored by Henry Purcell's famous aria ‘When I am Laid in Earth’ (aka ‘Dido's Lament’).”
“This project, birthed in the early days of the pandemic and executed in quarantine, functioned as an artistic lifeline during an extremely isolating time. For me, the project stands as a testament to the centrality and durability of making records for the modern musician, especially in the face of challenging circumstances.”
- William Brittelle
This record was released 19 days after the 66th Grammys, where Brittelle was recognized and awarded for his participation in Roomful of Teeth’s Rough Magic, also released via New Amsterdam Records.
Alex Sopp - “The Hem & The Haw” / “North Pole In Summer” (Singles from the upcoming album The Hem & The Haw)
“The Hem & The Haw,” the album title track by flutist, composer, vocalist, and visual artist Alex Sopp, reached the public on February 7th and created a stargazed response online. Not only is the song filled with sonic imagery of European lore, but her self-made music video showcases the “push-pull tug-of-war that happens within when one is paralyzed by the potential of forward motion,” shares Alex.
“It's a dance between the voice within urging you to move in infinite directions and the terrifying fear of said infinite directions. It’s a see-saw for yourself and yourself; on one side is the version who does, and on the other is the version who doesn’t.”
- Alex Sopp
Similarly to her first single, Sopp’s “North Pole in Summer” pushes us out of our comfort zones and into a new landscape. Need more proof that visual art and Alex Sopp go hand-in-hand? Watch the video from her latest release below.
The Hem & The Haw will be released on April 19th, 2024 via New Amsterdam Records.
Claire Dickson - The Beholder (Album)
A solo debut album like Claire’s is not for the faint of heart. “Your House,” the album’s third track, was the first preview of what The Beholder would bring, released exclusively for our Looking Back, Looking Forward end-of-year campaign in 2023. Dickson’s record is “loaded with breath and prose, words and music, fascination and mystery.” - Silence and Sound
“The songs are mostly through-composed; the form is continuously pushing forward, turning a new page,” says Dickson, “they explore the contrast and coexistence of high drama, drops, big sounds, lush textures, with delicate, close, subtle, sensorial sounds.” - Claire Dickson
With songs like “In The Night,” “Skin of Words,” and “Throw My Desire,” The Beholder is a record that holds you hostage until the last note.
Mazz Swift - “No More” (Single from their upcoming album The 10000 Things: PRAISE SONGS for the iRiligious)
With a list of accolades like composer, conductor, bandleader, educator, singer, and Juilliard-trained violinist, we’d often questioned what Mazz Swift can’t do. The answer? Conform. The neuro-emergent artist must, over all things, remind us of the past and “credit all those whose work we use” to move forward together. The Work Songs and Spirituals of the enslaved people that Swift uses as jumping-off points for improvisation and composition serve to connect with their musical ancestors.
“Now that I know ‘freedom,’ there’s nowhere to go but forward, but I still hear the ring of the pickaxe and the overseer’s switch.” - Mazz Swift
By weaving classic African-American music, electronica, and mindfulness into their art, they released ‘No More’ from their upcoming debut solo album, The 10000 Things: PRAISE SONGS for the iRiligious, via New Amsterdam Records on March 20th, 2024. Swift’s relationship with the Ghanaian concept of Sankofa (to “go back and fetch it”) greatly influenced this record. “Beginning a record with ‘I will never turn back’ is a statement in itself,” says Swift.
We’ve compiled a mix of our staff favorites, which you can listen to in our Spring Edit Playlist here.
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